Court ruling keeps polar bear as threatened species

The ruling also noted the appellants did not dispute the Fish and Wildlife Services’s claims that climate change has negatively affected polar bear habitats.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, in its 2008 determination, said climate change would likely make polar bears an endangered species facing extinction in the “foreseeable future,” according to Friday’s court ruling.

“[W]e can only conclude, as did the District Court, that Appellants’ challenges ‘amount to nothing more than competing views about policy and science,’ ” the court opinion said.